A chill shivers through his body.
This is really big business. It appears to be a routine matter only delayed by the tragic suicide of Carl Palmcrona, but it is clear that it seriously affects his countrys trade balance. He understands that Pontus Salmans situation is so precarious that this delay might drive his company under if drawn out much longer.
But while he understands this, Axel also understands that he is being pressured to approve export of ammunition to Kenya without being given the opportunity to personally weigh the decision.
Axel makes a decision and immediately feels much better.
Hell devote his attention to this matter over the next few days-and only then will he sign the approval.
He will sign, hes pretty sure of that, but he cant sign now. He doesnt care if they get angry or upset. He is the person who must make the decision: he is now the general director for the National Inspectorate of Strategic Products.
He doodles a smiley face and draws a one-word dialogue bubble on the signature line.
Axel returns to the hall wearing a stern expression and hands the folder back to the messenger. Then he goes upstairs and into the salon. Hes wondering if Beverly is really upstairs or if she didnt dare tell him that she had sneaked out.
What if she sneaks out and then disappears?
Axel picks up a remote for his music system and selects a mix of David Bowies earliest work. His music system looks like a shiny sheet of glass. Its wireless and the speakers are completely invisible and set into the walls.
He goes to the elaborate liquor cabinet, opens its embossed doors, and considers the gleaming bottles. He hesitates before he picks up a numbered whiskey bottle of Hazelburn from the Springbank Distillery, one located in Scotlands Campbeltown region. Axel once visited the area and had marveled at the hundred-year-old barrels. They were well worn, painted in clear red, and still in use. He pulls out the cork and breathes in the scent of the whiskey: deep earth and dark like a thunderstorm. Then he pushes in the cork again and slowly returns the bottle to the cabinet. The music system is playing a song from Hunky Dory. David Bowie sings:
But her friend is nowhere to be seen.
Now she walks through her sunken dream,
To the seat with the clearest view,
And shes hooked to the silver screen.
The door to his brothers apartment slams shut. Axel looks out through the enormous panorama windows with their view of the overgrown garden. He wonders if Robert is going to stop by and at the same moment, he hears the knock on his door.
Come in, Axel calls out.
Robert marches in looking disturbed.
I realize that you play that crap in order to drive me crazy, but-
Axel smiles and starts to sing along:
Take a look at the Lawman,
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man! Wonder if hell ever know:
Hes in the bestselling show
Robert does a few dance steps and walks over to the open liquor cabinet. He takes a look at the bottles.
Go ahead and help yourself, Axel says drily.
Could you take a look at my Strosser-can I turn off the music for a moment?
Axel shrugs. Robert hits STOP.
The Strosser is finished?
I was up all night, Robert says with a broad smile. I attached the strings early this morning.
Theres a moment of silence between them. A long time ago, their mother had been adamant that Axel would be a famous violinist. Alice Riessen had been a professional musician and played for ten years as second violin in the Stockholm Operas chamber music orchestra. Shed openly favored her firstborn son.
Everything fell apart when Axel, at the Royal College of Music, had become one of the three finalists in the Johan Fredrik Berwald Competition for young soloists. It would have been a straight shot from there into the worlds elite.
But after the competition, Axel had entered the Military Academy in Karlberg. Robert had enrolled in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He never became a star violinist. On the other hand, he plays in a chamber orchestra and now owns a renowned atelier where he takes orders for stringed instruments from around the world.
Show me your violin, Axel says after a while.
Robert nods and goes to get the instrument. Its a beautiful violin with a fiery-red lacquer and a bottom of tiger-striped maple.
He stands before his brother and begins to play a trembling strain from a Bela Bartok piece inspired by a journey through the Hungarian countryside. Axel has always liked Bartok, who as an open opponent of Nazism was forced to flee his native land. Axel admires Bartoks ability to be deeply thoughtful yet able to create short bursts of pure joy. Or to write melancholy folk music amid the ruins of a great catastrophe, Axel thinks as Robert finishes the piece.
It sounds very good, Axel says. But you should move the sound post slightly as theres a dead spot that-
Roberts face shuts down.
Daniel Strosser said that he wanted a sound like this, Robert says. He wants the violin to sound like a young Birgit Nilsson.
Then you should absolutely move the sound post, Axel says with a smile.